VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY – HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST – GRADUATE STUDIES LE THI QUY AN INVESTIGATION INTO STARTING AND CLOSING TELEPHONE CONVERSATIONS BETWEEN FRIENDS AND RELATIVES IN AMERICAN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE NGHIÊN CỨU PHẦN MỞ ĐẦU VÀ KẾT THÚC CUỘC HỘI THOẠI QUA ĐIỆN THOẠI GIỮA BẠN BÈ VÀ NGƯỜI THÂN TRONG TIẾNG ANH MỸ VÀ TIẾNG VIỆT M.A Minor Thesis Field: English Linguistics Code: 60 22 15 Hanoi - 2010 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY – HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST – GRADUATE STUDIES LE THI QUY AN INVESTIGATION INTO STARTING AND CLOSING TELEPHONE CONVERSATIONS BETWEEN FRIENDS AND RELATIVES IN AMERICAN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE NGHIÊN CỨU PHẦN MỞ ĐẦU VÀ KẾT THÚC CUỘC HỘI THOẠI QUA ĐIỆN THOẠI GIỮA BẠN BÈ VÀ NGƯỜI THÂN TRONG TIẾNG ANH MỸ VÀ TIẾNG VIỆT M.A Minor Thesis Field: English Linguistics Code: 60 22 15 Supervisor: NGUYEN THI THOM THOM, M.A Hanoi - 2010 iv TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION i ACKOWLEDGEMENTS ii ABSTRACT iii TABLE OF CONTENTS iv LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES vi LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS vii PART A: INTRODUCTION 1.Rationale 2.Aims and Significance of the study 3.Scopes of the study 4.Methods of the study 5.Design of the study PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1Theoretical Background 1.1.1Communication and telephone communication 1.1.2Conversation and telephone conversation 1.1.3Characteristics of a telephone conversation discourse 1.1.4The characteristic of a telephone conversation interaction 10 1.2Prior research on telephone conversations 10 1.2.1Telephone openings 11 1.2.2Telephone closings 13 1.3Summary 14 CHAPTER 2: THE STUDY 16 2.1Data collecting procedure 16 2.1.1Instruments 16 2.1.2Participants 17 2.2Data analysis 17 2.2.1Findings from the data corpus 17 2.2.2Findings from the survey questionnaire 25 2.2.3The similarities and differences of starting and closing telephone conversations in American English and Vietnamese 30 2.3Summary 33 PART C: CONCLUSION 34 1.Summary of the findings 34 2.Limitations of the study 36 3.Implications and suggestions for further research 37 REFERENCES 39 Website: 41 1.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communication 41 APPENDIX #1 I COMMON FRAMEWORK I Note: AmE: American English II APPENDIX #2 II TRANSCRIPTION (American native speakers) II III APPENDIX #3 .XI TRANSCRIPTION (Vietnamese native speakers) XI APPENDIX #4 XX SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRE (For American Native Speakers) XX APPENDIX #5 XXIII BẢN CÂU HỎI KHẢO SÁT (Dành cho người Việt ngữ) XXIII vi LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES Figure Frequency of the callees speak first 26 Figure Frequency of greeting the callers/ callees 27 Figure Frequency of asking what the caller/ callee doing 27 Figure Frequency of the callees initiate final closing 29 Figure Frequency of expressing joy about engaging in the conversation 29 Figure Frequency of giving reasons to end the phone 30 Table Occurrences of opening sequences 18 Table Occurrences of closing sequence 22 Table Sample of interaction with four phases analysis 23 Table Frequency of acts in the openings 25 Table Frequency of acts in the closings 28 Table Common opening patterns I Table Common closing patterns II vii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AmE: American English V1: Vietnamese V: Vietnamese people A: American People T: Transcription ... HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST – GRADUATE STUDIES LE THI QUY AN INVESTIGATION INTO STARTING AND CLOSING TELEPHONE CONVERSATIONS BETWEEN FRIENDS AND RELATIVES. .. similarities and differences of starting and closing telephone conversations in American English and Vietnamese 30 2.3Summary 33 PART C: CONCLUSION 34 1.Summary of the findings... RELATIVES IN AMERICAN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE NGHIÊN CỨU PHẦN MỞ ĐẦU VÀ KẾT THÚC CUỘC HỘI THOẠI QUA ĐIỆN THOẠI GIỮA BẠN BÈ VÀ NGƯỜI THÂN TRONG TIẾNG ANH MỸ VÀ TIẾNG VIỆT M.A Minor Thesis Field: English